Old haulage companies

The first driving job I had was for a small timber products company they had 3 Bedford tk 4 wheelers 10 ton payload. The brakes were the sevo assisted type that used to make a wolf whistle noise , the handbrake was on a disc on the propshaft I might be wrong but was it me or were they rubbish. I’m only asking cos on a couple of occasions going down the Brighouse hill on the M62 no matter how I nursed them down the hill they would get brake fade and run away you couldn’t stop them they were heavy with dripping wet timber on at the time.